Drying apparatus for clothes



' Apr. 17, 1923. mamas H. CAVE mmnq APPARATUS FOR CLOTHES Filed Feb. 20, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR $77M j j nwmvms.

Apr. 17, 1923.

11 ,4152,@6@ H. CAVE DRYING APPARATUS FOR CLOTHES Filed Feb. 20, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR hr QM ATTORNEYS @UNITED STATES iaszeee PATENT oerica.

NR cAyE, or HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT.

DRYING APPARATUS FOR CLOTHES.

Application, filed February 20, 1920. Serial N0. 360,142.

To all whom z't mcy concern: Be it known that I, HENRY cAvnya citizen of the United States of America, residing at Hartford, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements' in Drying Apparatus for Clothes f which the follow ing is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in drying apparatus and, more particularly, to improvementswhicli are "designed to render such apparatus suitable for use in the indoor drying. of clothes.

The apparatus of this invention: is such that it may be set up indoors in the home and receive and rapidly dry theffamily washing, thereby rendering it unnecessary to gooutdoors for this purpose in cold,"

stormy, or otherwise disagreeable weather.

,Aside fromjthis advantage, the apparatus permits much more rapid drying, in thatthe circulation of air. may be forced. Thus, the washing, which frequently requires half a day for drying under ordinary conditions,

. maybe entirely disposedof in a much shorter interval. The present apparatus is intended ,tosupplement household washing machines,

which have now" comeinto extensive use, with the idea of saving, not only labor, but time and rendering t possible to dispose of ,the entireffamily washing in a matter of a few hours against the day or more heretofore necessary.

An objectof this inventionis to provide a, drying chamber having side walls which are extensible and contractible, whereby its cub cal contents may be adjusted to varying amounts of articles to be dried and, whereby p the a pparatus may becompacted into small compass when not in use.

Another object of the invention is to provide in such an apparatus, supportingmeans for an extensible or contractible nature,

which are adapted for supporting clothes fand other art icles of generally sheetlike form Another object of the invention is to provide, in an apparatusofthe class described, fmeans for forcing a c rculation of air there-- through, ashy a power-driven fan-for exfurther object of the invention is to provide means, fordetaching the apparatus and fan from its source of power, so that the power. plant unit of the apparatus may be used for other purposes when desired.

I the illustrative embodiment of the invention in the accompanying drawings, in which, Fig. l is an elevational view showing a complete drying apparatus embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; 3is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4. is an enlarged sectional view of a part of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a plan view of the dryin g chamb Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view thereof takeu'on'the line 6-6 of Fig. 5; V Y

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view taken on the line T7 Of FigVG; and -Figs.' 8 and 9 arecross-sectional and plan views, respectively, illustrative of the construction of the extensible walls of the drying chamber.

-The drying apparatus includes a drying chamber and. preferably, means as a fan for causing a circulation f'air therethr ough. Thedrying chamber is indicated'at A and, as shown; in Fig. 5, it is open at the top to permit the entrance of air; The chamber A has a rigid back wall 10; a. rigid front wall 11 with doors l2 ther'ein; and prefer ably supported by wheels 12 and side and bottom walls 13 and 14c, respectively,whi-ch are preferably, althoughfnot necessarily, flexible. The object in making the walls 13 and 14: flexible is solely to permit extension and contraction of the length of the drying chamber A to accommodate varying quantities of articles to be dried. .Any means therefore. which will permit the front and back walls 11 and 10, respectively, to be moved toward and away from one another while still enclosing the sides and bottom of the chamber A, may be used as desired.

As an illustrative example of one suitable way of constructing the walls .13 and 14 to attain the object desired, reference is made 4 as shown in Fig.

-Manv other suitable ways of forming the walls 13 and 14 will readily suggest themselvesto those skilled in the art and the described way is given merely as an illus trative example.

While articles of various classes may be placed within chamber A for drying and the invention is not necessarily confined to any one given class ofarticles, the invention does afford a particularly advantageous arrangementfor drying clothes. To this end, sup

porting means are. provided within chamber A for clothes or other articles, such as sheets or the like. Such supporting means, as illustrated, consist of a series of transverserods 20 to which the clothes may be attached in any suitable way,as for example by hanging them over the ,rods.,. As shown, these rods are cylindrical (and preferably hollow) andare' arranged to roll on longitudinal.

trackways 21, which are arranged one adjacent the upper'endof each side wall 13, These trackways 21, which in Fig. are illustrated merely in conventional form, are of course capable of contraction and extension with the \va1ls13. To this end, each trackway (Fig. (5) consists of a series of telescoping sections 22, the end sections of each series being fastened one i to wall and the ther to wall 11. Flanges 23 are provided, one on each end of eachrod to prevent undue axial displacement oftherods on their trackways. Y To insure a positive circulation of air through the chamber A, a fan F 18 provided,

which may be driven, according to some features of the invention, in any suitable inan- Fan F is rotatably supported within [a housing 24: fixed to the rear wall 10 and communicating therewith through an opening 25, whlch is preferably screened, as indicated M26. .The fan F is so'arranged as to draw air through the open upper end of chamber A downwardly therethrough and thence outwardly through the screened open- 1ng26 and the fan housing 24.

- Considering the drying apparatus by itself, it is obvious that the particular means of driving fan F is immaterial. However, since, there may be many other units of household apparatus which require to be 'power driven, I provide an advantageous arrangement whereby the one power plant may be used for all such units and for various purposes other than that described. To

this end, the source of power, as the electric motor M, is mounted upon a wheeled frame 28, whereby the motor is conveniently portable. The shaft of motor M is squared as at 29, or otherwise formed, in order to adapt it for driving engagement with the fan F or other device to be driven. In this instance, the hub of fan F has a square socket to receivethe squared end 29 of the motor shaft. Thus, the motor may be connected and disconnected from fan F, or any other device to be driven with convenience and rapidity.

To render the descrlbedjdetaehable driving arrangement practical, it is essential of course that the element to be driven align with the drive shaft of motor M. To insure this result, centering means (other than the squared end 29) are provided togetherwith clamping devices to firmly hold the frame 28 to the frame, as wall 10, of the apparatus to be operated. Thus, secured towall 10 are two plates 32 and secured to frame 28 is a plate 33 which is adapted to abut both plates 32, thereby determining the proper distance between the frame 28 and wall 10 for o erative driving engagement of, the motor with fan F. To center and align the motor M and fan F, both horizontally and vertically, dowels 34: are provided inplate 33 for engagement. in sockets in plates 32. At least two, andpreferablythree (as illustrated), of these dowels are'employed. and each is-taperedat its outer end, as is the end 29, to facilitate entrance into the various sockets, which are preferably flared at their outer ends, even though, the two units to be ,joined are not in exactalignment. To draw the plate 33 into abutmentwith plates 32, and thus square up'the frame 28with wall 11 so that the axes of motor M and fan F are parallel, a cam plate 35 is provided on the back of each plate 32 for cooperation with a cam 36 rotatably mounted'in frame 28 and oscillatable by means ofa lever 37,

l/Vhen the two units are first placed. together,

cam 36isso positioned as to'freely enter between plates 35. Then, by manipulating lever 37, the extreme ends of cam 36 engage one on each cam plate35 and continued movement of lever 3 7 causes the plates 32 and 33 to be drawn squarely 'together and into intimatecontact.

' In using the drying chamber, which will be assumed to be in compa-cted position, the

doors 12 are opened and the clothes are hung first from the rearmost rod 20, which is readily reached without entering 'the chamher due to its compacted condition Then other clothes are hungfrom the next'rod 20 and then the next, and so forth, the chamber A being progressively increased in area, as is necessary or desired, until the entire wash is hung up in chamber A. Then the power plant unit is connected to fan F, as

I already described, and the fan put in molines of clothes therein, and thence discharged through housing 24. The air, being taken in at room temperature, is warm and generally dry. Consequently, such air will readily absorb the moisture and rapidly dry the clothes, only a very small interval, compared to ordinary conditions, being necessary. On completion or the drying operation, the power plant unit may be disconnected and rolled away for use with other apparatus.

The invention has been disclosed herein, in an embodiment at present preferred, for illustrative purposes, but the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description.

What I claim isy 1. In an apparatus of the class described two substantially rigid oppositely positioned walls, other walls connecting the first-named walls to permit one thereof to be moved towards and away from the other, said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents, a door in one of said firstnamed walls, and means associated with one of said first-named walls for causing a current of air to be drawn through said drying chamber.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, two generally parallel and substantially rigid walls, other walls connecting the firstnamed walls to permit one thereof to be moved towards and away from the other, said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents, supporting means within the chamber for supporting articles to be dried, and means associated with one of said first-named walls for causing a current of air to circulate through the drying chamber.

3. In an apparatus of the class described, two oppositely positioned substantially rigid walls, other walls connecting the first-namedwalls to permit one thereof to be moved towards and away from the other, said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents, supporting means within the chamber for the articles to be dried comprising a series of rolling rods and telescopic trackways to support the same, and means carried by one of said first-named walls for causing a current of air to circulate through the drying chamber.

4-. In an apparatus ofthe class described, two oppositely positioned substantially rigid walls, other walls connecting the first-named walls to permit one thereof to be moved towards and away from the other said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents, a door in one of the firstnamed walls, said chamber having an inlet and an exit opening for air, and a fan associated with one of said openings to force a circulation of air through the chamber.

5. In a drying apparatus comprising oppositely positioned substantially rigid walls, collapsible walls connecting said first-named walls, said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents, telescopic trackways carried by one of said first-named walls and positioned within the drying chamber tosupport articles to be dried, and means comprising afan carried by one of the firstnamed walls for causing a current of air to circulate through the drying chamber.

6. In a drying apparatus comprising oppositely positioned substantially rigid walls, other walls connecting the sides and bottom portions of said first-named walls, to permit one thereof to be moved towards and away from the other, said walls forming a drying chamber of variable cubical contents and means for drawing a current of air downwardly through the drying chamber and discharging the same through a screened opeiliing formed in one of said first-named wal s.

HENRY CAVE. 

